Tuesday 14th October 2008

5.30pm Jim McConalogue on CentreRight: "On the pan-European £1.17 trillion plan, I would suggest that the spending spree amounting to £1.17 trillion may turn out to be the biggest historic gamble of taxpayers’ money in recent European history."

Graeme Archer on CentreRight: "If put into practice [The Precautionary Principle] would have the effect of causing us to do nothing, ever. I’d really rather not live my life like that, and I certainly wouldn’t vote for a party were its economic platform based on such scare-mongering."

Now is the time to invest in big capital projects – Boris Johnson in The Telegraph

Phillip Johnston: The Tories can no longer rely on Labour collapse

"This crisis has left the Tories in a terrible political bind. They have been busily devising policies that emphasise less state control, more individual responsibility, greater local decision-making, tax cuts when growth allows and increases in public spending. They have even given it a name: the post-bureaucratic age. Yet we could be entering an era where the helping hand of the state is welcomed by frightened people who blame the excesses of untrammelled capitalism for the fix they are in. More than that, the Tories have been relying on the continued and inevitable decline of Mr Brown’s premiership, a death by a thousand cuts. Yet now he is lionised as the saviour of the banking system. He will be far more difficult to prise out of Number 10 as a result." – Philip Johnston in The Telegraph

Tories warn they will not honour decisions over Stansted expansion – Guardian

Mark Pritchard MP will call for ban on primates being kept as pets – ePolitix

How much has Labour bounced?

"Labour has advanced from a low of 26 to 27 per cent between May and August, according to the average of all published polls, to above 30 per cent in seven of the last eight polls, and an average of 31 to 32 per cent so far this month. But this has been largely at the expense of the Liberal Democrats, as the Tories have slipped only from 45 to 46 per cent to an average of 43 to 44 per cent." – Peter Riddell in The Times

Speaker launches probe into Tony Blair’s Ecclestone/ F1 exemption

"Mr Martin promised to intervene after Conservative MPs John Maples and Peter Luff told the House the new evidence proved Mr Blair had misled Parliament." – Daily Mail

As Europe slumps, is the far Right rising? – Richard J Evans in The Times

And finally…

Quentin Letts in The Daily Mail watches Peter Mandelson become a Lord: "The House was full, as it often is at the start of the day. They get paid for turning up, of course, but there was genuine wonderment. There have been precedents. We have had appalling Eurocrats before in the House. But none with such a record of disgrace and devilment."

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